The Brave Don't Cry (1952) a reconstruction of a disaster
at Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery, Ayrshire, in 1950, dramatises the tense events
of the rescue of miners trapped underground after a pit shaft was flooded and
nine men were lost. The difficult and dangerous rescue of all the survivors was
made through abandoned workings full of gas. The film features actors from the
Glasgow Citizen's Theatre. Originally to be titled "What God Forgot", and
made by John Grierson's Group 3 company it was premiered under its new title at
the Edinburgh Film Festival in August 1952, with an invited audience of miners.
It was also shown that year at the Venice Film Festival.

***

The Brave Don't Cry aspires to the "feel" of a
documentary, right down to the deliberate absence of background music. A mine in
Scotland falls victim to a cave-in, trapping some one hundred workers. Rescue
parties are formed as the tremulous families of the miners wait in agony. As in
the actual incident upon which this film is based, the rescue is nip and tuck
and times, but eventually successful. The faces of real-life Scottish mining
folk are melded with the professional actors in The Brave Don't Cry,
adding poignancy to this otherwise cut-and-dried film.

I have a bit of a personal
connection to this film as my grandfather was a Welsh miner who
survived a Pit cave-in. Even aside from that, I thought The
Brave Don't Cry was a fascinating, and well-made, film.

The transfer by Panamint is solid
- dual-layered with minimal SD artifacts and no noise visible on
my system. the visuals are pleasing with strong black levels and
excellent contrast. The digital presentation is very consistent
and even shows a smattering desirable film grain textures. The
sound is likewise consistent - clean and audible. There are no
subtitles on the region 2, PAL standard DVD disc.

There are some great extras in
the package all remastered in broadcast quality. Documenting John Grierson runs 1/2 an hour
and has Bill Paterson narrating this Hopscotch Films production
of the life and work of the documentary pioneer. It was
originally shown on BBC2 Scotland and includes interviews with
some who Grierson influenced, including Alfred Hitchcock. The
Terrible Price also runs about 30-minutes and is an
independently produced documentary, screened by BBC2 Wales, to
mark the 70th anniversary of the Gresford mining disaster in
which 266 miners lost their lives. Panamint include another 1/2
hour's worth of interview extracts that, while not meeting
broadcast requirements, tell us more about the vanished world of
Welsh coal miners and their families.

I thoroughly enjoyed this DVD -
there is a lot of information included with the excellent
feature film. We give a strong buy recommendation. This is not a
film you are likely to see elsewhere. Big thanks to Panamint for
producing it.